There have been a couple of big changes at Riello UPS, now known as Riello Aros, the company having rebranded on January 1st this year.

The other change was that the company announced its first foray into the flywheel market when signed an exclusive pan European distribution deal with Vycon which will see the UPS maker sell flywheel UPS back-up systems across Europe. 

Rebranding can be a tricky business. You want people to notice. But you want them to notice for the right reasons. To be fair, Riello's wasn't a wholesale rebrand and the company's logic was that it wanted to leverage the Aros engineering reputation. The companies have been working together for over 14 years. 

"Consolidating all of our UPS activities under a single, global brand reflects both our strong UPS positions and our ongoing growth opportunities, especially in EMEA, India and China," said Roberto Facci, commercial director for Riello UPS. Riello UPS currently ranks 4th among UPS vendors worldwide and number 3 in Europe, according to IMS Research. 

In the other departure Riello's first flywheel products have come about about through the Vycon partnership.

The systems, which deliver 300KVA, and can be paralleled together to deliver 1MW will sit alongside Riello UPSs and in the event of use will either take the initial load or kick in to stop the load 'thumping' the batteries thus extending battery life.
  

Robin Koffler, UK manager for Riello says the move was prompted by market enquiries as big data center operators starting asking about flywheel technology efficiency and its 'greenness' compared with traditional battery set ups. 

On the efficiency side Riello quotes the system as being 99% efficient partly due to the magnetically levitating frictionless bearing and says another market differentiator is the footprint size which it says it half that of other suppliers as it uses a 'taller, thinner disk.'

When mains fails there is quite quite a large thumping onto the batteries ÔÇô flywheel takes the initial load and on green side they reduce floor print of oversize eco side in terms fo extending working life of batteries, says Koffler.

"The technology of the VDC, due to its reliability, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and environmental sustainability, is of great interest to numerous business sectors, from finance and banking, healthcare, computer services and data centres.' 

On the motorbike front Riello Aros renewed its sponsorship of the Forza Ducati MotoGP motorbike racing team. Despite the speed at which the bikes fly past, the company says the sponsorship gives it a lot of brand recognition. Speed sells.